What Do You Look For From Online/Blog Friends?

Sometimes (often) I feel a bit guilty for being such a social media freak. I love learning and networking with such awesome people who have so much to teach me and share my interests and ambitions. However, I do occasionally feel like I'm not only pimping myself, but that I have nothing really to offer. There are so many reasons I participate in the social media sphere. To learn and network, yes, but also, eventually, to promote books.

I think social media for book promotion is okay. In a way, you are offering a bit of yourself in exchange for a bit of someones time and attention. Whether they're reading your blog posts and tweets or your actual book. I think if social media is used that way, then that's fair. Spamming and turning it all into a one-way self-serving conversation is a separate thing, an annoying not okay thing that plenty of people in the blogosphere have talked about already.

But that's not really what I'm talking about here. I guess what I'm saying is that I sometimes feel guilty for asking for your attention on this blog or Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr or YouTube or Pinterest when 1) my general lack of experience and 2) my unpublishedness/not having a book available makes me feel like I have so little to offer in return.

I plan to, in the future. Obviously I hope to have an explosion of books available for everybody as quickly as I can make that happen (still querying agents), but I also want to share what I learn along the way to hopefully be a little helpful. But I'm banking on that in the future and in a way asking you to, too.

Does all this make sense? I guess my real question is what do you look for in the people you interact with on social networks? What can I offer you to make your time and attention here the most worthwhile?

Maybe its a general question, but I am very open to any answers. What would be most worth your while? Not just here, but all over the internetz. More book recommendations? Writing process tips and tricks? Contests? More funny cat videos and pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch's cheek-bones?

Sarah Allen